Mark Schwahn has been suspended as the showrunner of The Royals after his former employees and co-workers from One Tree Hill came forward about his sexual harassment and abuse. The companies, E!, Universal Cable Productions, and Lionsgate Television, came together to state that they would investigate the claims "thoroughly and independently". "Lionsgate has suspended Mark Schwahn from "The Royals" as we continue our investigation", the statement reads. That letter followed a Twitter thread posted Saturday by Audrey Wauchope in which she detailed sexual harassment and hostile workplace practices by Schwahn, who she initially did not identify by name.

But thank you most of all to the women of One Tree Hill, whose solid gold backbones have moved us enormously.

Over the weekend, writer Audrey WauchopeaccusedSchwahn of inappropriate behavior on the WB show.

"A few of us were put in positions where we felt physically unsafe". "He pet hair. He massaged shoulders".

Schwahn's rep and attorney did not immediately respond to Bustle's request for comment about Park's allegations.

"We also understood that no one was fully unaware", the letter continued. Often men would help out by sitting next to him, thus protecting the women, Wauchope tweeted. The lack of action that has been routine, the turning of the other cheek, is intolerable.

"In the past, people were afraid to come forward in these situations because they were terrified of losing an opportunity so hard to come by, an opportunity that meant so much to them", she wrote.

Writer Mark Schwahn has been suspended from the drama The Royals after allegations of sexual harassment surfaced against him. We have to be better.

In their letter, Sophia, Hilarie and castmate Bethany Joy Lenz accused Schwahn of treating them in ways that were "traumatizing" and "downright illegal".

Austin Nichols, who began recurring in the series in Season 6, said in a tweet, "I stand with all my OTH sisters". It became all too apparent reading their statement earlier this week that the betrayal and anger so many of us had experienced during our time on The Royals is not exclusively ours. "Today they've made us all even more proud by standing as a beacon of what is right, and continuing to lead & change the atmosphere of society", Chad Michael Murray wrote on Twitter.

On Monday, a spokesperson for E! told CNN, "We are monitoring the information carefully".

In a statement to Deadline, the three studios said that they are "monitoring the information carefully" and they are "committed to providing a safe working environment in which everyone is treated respectfully and professionally".